byzantine

Adjective

• highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious
  • the Byzantine tax structure
    
  • Byzantine methods for holding on to his chairmanship
    
  • convoluted legal language
    
  • convoluted reasoning
    
  • the plot was too involved
    
  • a knotty problem
    
  • got his way by labyrinthine maneuvering
    
  • Oh, what a tangled web we weave- Sir Walter Scott
    
  • tortuous legal procedures
    
  • tortuous negotiations lasting for months
    

• of or relating to or characteristic of the Byzantine Empire or the ancient city of Byzantium

• of or relating to the Eastern Orthodox Church or the rites performed in it
  • Byzantine monks
    
  • Byzantine rites
    

Noun

• a native or inhabitant of Byzantium or of the Byzantine Empire

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  Byzantine , convoluted , involved , knotty , tangled , tortuous